That was the weed in the garden of Protestantism. Even Luther had questioned17 the canonicity of some books of the Bible, especially the book of James, for what he took as its preaching of “salvation by works.” And Bonhoeffer’s professor, the liberal theologian Adolf von Harnack, had questioned the canonicity of much of the Old Testament. There’s little question that the liberal theological school of Schleiermacher and Harnack helped push things along in this direction. But the other piece of this puzzle has to do with the confusion that inevitably arises when the Christian faith becomes too
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